Hasegawa Edges Ota for 59kg Crown at Hungarian Grand Prix

SZOMBATHELY, Hungary (February 6-7) – Two-time Asian Games gold medalist Kohei HASEGAWA edged newly minted national champion Shinobu OTA for the 59kg crown at the Grand Prix of Hungary Greco-Roman wrestling event.

Hasegawa, runner-up at the Japanese championships in December, edged Ota in Szombathely with the last point in a 2-2 decision for his third straight international victory since finishing 10th at the London 2012 Olympic Games – including a gold medal at the Incheon 2014 Asian Games.

Tomohiro INOUE, a bronze medal winner at the 2013 Asian championships, was the only other Japanese entry to post a win at the grand prix with a technical fall over Jesse THIELKE (USA) at 66kg.

Inoue, however, had to settle for 11th place after losses to eventual winner Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) in the second round and to 2012 European silver medalist Georgian CARPEN (ROU) in repechage.

Results of bouts featuring Japanese entries:

Greco-Roman

59kg – HASEGAWA, Kohei (1st, 21 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – df. Dawid SZKODZISKI (POL) by TF, 10-0, 1:09

R3 – df. Ivan LIZATOV (CRO) by Fall, 5:29 (5-0)

SF – df. WANG Lumin (CHN), 8-2

F1 – df. Shinobu OTA (JPN), 2-2

59kg – OTA, Shinobu (2nd, 21 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – df. Ryan MANGO (USA), 11-7

R3 – df. Dawid ERSETIC (POL) by TF, 8-0, 3:55

SF – df. Ildar HAFIZOV (USA) by Fall, 1:25 (2-2)

F1 – lost to Kohei HASEGAWA (JPN), 2-2

66kg – INOUE, Tomohiro (11th, 27 entries)

R1 – df. Jesse THIELKE (USA) by TF, 8-0, 2:58

R2 – lost to Tamas LORINCZ (HUN), 0-4

r1 – lost to Georgian CARPEN (ROU), 4-4

66kg – TAKAHASHI, Shogo (27th, 27 entries)

R1 – lost to ZHENG Pan (CHN) by TF, 0-10, 2:37

75kg – YABIKU, Shohei (23rd, 24 entries)

R1 – lost to Edgar BABAYAN (POL) by TF, 0-8, 1:32

85kg – OKA, Taichi (20th, 21 entries)

R1 – lost to Tadeusz MICHALIK (POL) by TF, 0-10, 3:58

85kg – SUMI, Masato (21st, 21 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – lost to Damian JANIKOWSKI (POL) by TF, 0-8, 0:51

r1 – lost to Yuri SHKRIUBA (UKR) by TF, 0-10, 3:33

98kg – SAIKAWA, Norikatsu (15th, 20 entries)

R1 – bye

R2 – lost to Mohamed ABDELFATAH (BRN), 1-2

130kg – SONODA, Arata (10th, 14 entries)

R1 – lost to Lukasz BANAK (POL), 2-6

==End Item